The household equipment can generally be divided into departments, just as office work is divided into departments. There is the cooking department, the laundry department and the cleaning department. These will be large and small according to the size of the family and the house. Each requires its own equipment and each should be kept separate--the cleaning instruments such as brushes, brooms, vacuum cleaner, dust cloths, etc., in their own department or closet; the things appertaining to the kitchen in the kitchen; the laundry equipment, soap, clothes-lines etc. in the laundry. Some household managers may say that this is an old story. Yes, to them. But hundreds of women complicate the household work by not using this departmental idea. So soon as they do, household work begins to straighten out. A household policy is less easy to define. In an office a policy is the way of conducting business--both the way and the purpose. In a house it should be the same. It is this that the author of this book reiterates over and over again, a policy and system in the department of the installing of labor-saving and work-doing machinery and devices and operations to reduce the irksomeness of household management. It is this that the readers of _House and Garden Magazine_, wherein this book appeared serially, have enjoyed. Men and women have profited by its accurate technical discussion and by the delightful presentation with its occasional bits of humor. For these reasons I gladly recommend it to its future public which I feel sure has need of it, consciously or unconsciously. RICHARDSON WRIGHT CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION. THE HOUSEKEEPER AS MANAGER. BY RICHARDSON WRIGHT, Editor of _House and Garden Magazine_ xi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCING YOU TO ELECTRICITY 1 Electricity simplified for your many uses. II. KEEPING OUT OF HOT WATER 13 Making dishwashing a pleasant game. How the drudgery of dishwashing is banished by electricity. III. ELECTROCUTING THE WASH 22 No more wasting the laundress. Electric laundries make washing, drying and ironing swifter and cleaner. IV. THE PORTABLE VACUUM CLEANER 45 Makes a clean sweep if you buy the right kind. V. A PIPE DREAM 54 The stationary vacuum plant in your cellar is piped for convenience, like water to your chambers. VI. COOKING BY ELECTRIC CURRENT 62 Not a currant jam, but a release of time and a gain in cleanliness and comfort.